It is well known that most of the lives lost in fires are lost due to smoke inhalation, and that these deaths occur because no means has been made readily available which will give a person, who is caught in a fire, adequate protection from smoke inhalation for the relatively short period of time necessary to escape the fire. The present invention contemplates the provision of a mask or hood that can be conveniently stored, is simple to use, and is effective to give the user protection from smoke inhalation for approximately fifteen minutes.
Hoods have been provided for protecting the wearers from various dangerous conditions including smoke inhalation, and the hood disclosed in the patent to Nakagawa U.S. Pat. No. 4,231,118 is purported to provide protection from fire, smoke and poisonous gases. Other hoods and similar protective devices are disclosed in the patents to Lufkin U.S. Pat. No. 1,856,879, Lund et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,839 and Zebuhr U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,055.
It is, of course, of utmost importance to the wearer of a smoke protective hood that he be able to breathe easily and efficiently, and it is therefore desirable that the mouthpiece be precisely located relative to his or her mouth. It is evident that, if a hood is too large or too small for the head of the wearer, the mouthpiece will be displaced from his mouth and will have to be continuously adjusted to give him a feeling that he is getting enough air under the circumstances.
None of the above-mentioned patents disclose any means for locating the mouthpiece near the user's mouth and it is an important object of the present invention to provide such means.